This invention relates generally to the harvesting of fruits and vegetables and more particularly concerns the collection of heavy, ground-laden fruits and vegetables, such as melons, by mechanical means. Although this invention is intended to be used to harvest many heavy ground-laden fruits and vegetables, and I claim such harvesting as within the scope of the invention, I will discuss the invention generally with reference to the harvesting of melons. As mechanical harvesting has progressed with the times, allowing cheaper more efficient harvesting means, the collection and harvesting of melons has remained principally one of human toil and exertion. The use of mechanized vehicles and trucks in the fields, as the point of collection and consolidation for these melons, has reduced the labor required to harvest them. Because of several impediments to the harvesting of melons, including the random growth of the vines which support the melons, the ease with which melons are bruised and damaged, and the extent to which melons ripen at different times, manual labor, which stoops down, selectively picks up the melons and cuts the vine, and carries the melon to the truck for collection and consolidation, has in the past been the preferred method for harvesting melons among farmers.
Several inventions have attempted to mechanize the harvesting of melons with little success, due principally to their complexity and their inability to overcome the foregoing impediments. See, for instance, Scheidenhelm, U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,098 (issued May 20, 1958); O'Brien, U.S. Pat. No. 3,331,197 (issued Jul. 18, 1967), and Wegscheid, U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,596 (issued Oct. 10, 1972). Scheidenhelm discloses a harvester that utilizes rollers and travelling conveyors and which employs an elevating conveyor that is adapted to ride over the individual melons, and then to aid the rollers in lifting the melons until the melons can be elevated along smooth sloping surface for loading. The invention fails to achieve all the objectives of my invention because it harvests all melons in its path, even the ones not ripe. Moreover, because of the lack of human oversight the mechanical implements, when not operating at optimum efficiency, can destroy vines or damage the produce. O'Brien discloses a comparable invention that utilizes a conveyor that rides over the melons. O'Brien also discloses a method to influence the growth patterns of the melons, so that by manual oversight and manipulation the melons in a field can be segregated according to ripeness so that the melons can be selectively harvested. The invention fails to achieve all the objectives of my invention because the mechanical implements of the invention, when not operating at optimum efficiency, can destroy vines or damage the produce. Moreover, the invention requires a high degree of oversight of the melon growing process, and the corresponding undesirable consumption of a farmer's time. Wegscheid discloses a harvesting device comprising a plurality of individual melon harvesters supported along the length of a boom structure. Wegsheid's harvesting device does not achieve the objectives of my invention because it requires that a harvesting vehicle be substantially modified for mounting of the harvesting device. Moreover, the plurality of harvesters employed in Wegsheid's invention increases the likelihood for mechanical problems and downtime not present in a single harvester. Due to the described deficiencies in the prior art the harvesting of melons continues to be manually performed, with minimal mechanical innovation or utilization. None of the foregoing inventions has become accepted in the industry. I have invented a melon harvesting device that overcomes the weaknesses of the prior art.
It is a principal object of this invention to provide a harvesting device for melons which requires the services of fewer people than the hand harvesting methods generally practiced in the past.
Another principal object of this invention is to collect the melons over a wide range of directions and locations relative to a mobile collection vehicle.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a means and method for harvesting melons which will remove the melons at optimum ripeness and will not destroy or injure the vines or the melon.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a harvesting device that is easily mounted to a collection vehicle without significant modifications to the collection vehicle.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings.